The proest featured many signs, one read: “For stronger public health and education, for addressing climate change, for asylum seeker rights, for real reconciliation, for equitable access to university, for protecting the environment, for international aid based on need not trade, for greater equality of wealth, for cultural diversity, for these reasons and more we march and shout, ‘Boot the Liberals Out!’”

Maurie Mulheron, president of a teaching union, told the crowd the government “simply doesn’t believe” in supporting education, The Guardian reported.

“It is obvious that the Abbott government has declared war on children and young people,” he said.

“It is determined by way of policy to limit opportunity. In short it simply does not believe the government should provide education."

As well as budget cuts, Abbott has landed in hot water for his unguarded remarks about Australian history - including that the country was "unsettled" before British colonisation - that downplay the significance of indigenous Australians.

Ken Canning, a Murri writer and poet, said they were "an afterthought" in Australian politics.

“It’s like politically we are an afterthought in our own country. This is not good enough,” he said.

“The only way to get rid of this government is to do what you’re doing now. Get out there and protest.”

The government's policies on refugee asylum seekers was also attacked.

Human rights lawyer Julian Burnside told the crowd outside the Victoria Parliament: "The way they are treating refugees in Australia is a crime, and there has already been a reference put into the international criminal court complaining of that very treatment.”